Understanding the Gender Gap in Political Ambition: The Role of Informal Encouragement

Despite decades of institutional progress toward parity, a persistent gender gap remains in political ambition (Fox and Lawless, 2014). While previous research has emphasized how formal methods of recruitment could positively increase women’s engagement in politics, less is known about how informal forms of encouragement shapes candidacy. This paper investigates the relationship between gender and informal encouragement to run as candidates, advancing that women remain particularly reliant on these mechanisms before expressing their desire to become candidates. By drawing on data from the 2019 Belgian Candidate Study, our analysis tests the effects of gender, caretaking responsibilities, and personality traits on reports of informal encouragement. Results reveal that women are significantly more likely than men to report such encouragement, even after controlling for socioeconomic, familial, and psychological variables. Family obligations and personality traits exert only marginal to no effects, confirming that gender remains the strongest and most consistent predictor. These findings highlight the gendered dynamics happening before any formal steps in candidacy: women remain strongly dependent on external cues, despite Belgium’s legislative framework opening women’s opportunities regarding political careers. This enjoins us to think of mechanisms to bridge the gender gap beyond formal mechanisms and towards the focus on women’s perception of their political opportunity structures.